Fresh Apple Cake

 

Last weekend, my sister and her family came up from Southern California for a visit. And what do the Nguyen’s do when we are on vacation? We Eat….and we Eat a lot. And when we are not eating (or shopping), we like to have Foodventures. So it’s not too surprising that after spending a few indulgent hours at the SF Street Food Fest, we  were hitting the road to Sebastopol to Twin Hill Ranch for some good old apple picking. We filled our baskets with delicious apples (Gravenstein varietal) and also picked up a few jugs of fresh pressed apple cider—absolutely delicious!

We kind of went nuts with apple picking which did leave a slight challenge. What does one do with over 15+ pounds of apples?! I knew we would need to put our hand picked apples to use. My sister (aka. “Head Foodie” of the family) suggested that I make the Fresh Apple Cake that our mom used to enjoy so much. Perfect!

The recipe is from Feasts of Eden and is incredibly easy and quick. Pretty much a dump and stir method–which is great for baking with kids. The glaze that is poured over the warm cake isn’t like the type that I used on the Blueberry-Meyer Lemon Cake. This glaze soaks into the Apple Cake producing a moist and sweet product. A few other things to note:

• The batter is incredibly thick. But don’t worry! The 3 cups of fresh apples has a lot of moisture and it all works out–I promise!
• Next time, I will use only 1 cup of granulated white sugar and add 1 cup of light brown sugar.
• Add 1/4 Cup Molasses – really rounds out the flavors of the spices.
• The glaze may get lumpy from the confectioner sugar. If it does, strain it before pouring over the warm cake.
• Leave the cake on a rack when you pour the glaze on it and then transfer to the serving platter. Since the glaze is somewhat thin, it will definitely run over the sides of your plate/cake stand and will leave you a HOT MESS!

Overall, I was pretty pleased with it and my co-workers seemed to enjoy it as well (they often act as my “guinea pigs”, too). The cake really works well as a breakfast pastry—wonderful with a steaming cup of coffee.

And perhaps it’s just me, but knowing that we handpicked the apples ourselves made it taste even better! 🙂

Until next time friends!

________________________________________________________

Fresh Apple Cake
From Feast of Eden

Ingredients:

Cake Batter
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Ground Cloves
½ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Large Eggs
3 Cups Chopped Apple

Glaze
½ Cup Unsalted Butter
¼ Cup Water
1 Cup Confectioner Sugar
2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly grease a large bundt pan.

Sift dry ingredients together. Add liquid ingredients, stirring well to combine. Add the chopped apples and transfer mixture to bundt pan. Be sure to spread the mixture evenly. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before inverting on to a plate.

While cake is cooling, prepare glaze. Melt butter and slowly add confectioner sugar and cinnamon. Stir well to ensure there are no lumps. Add water and mix until combined. Slowly pour over the cake while its still warm.